WWE Saturday Night's Main Event - January 2025

Last year, WWE brought back a classic event from their prestigious past, and the one-off special proved very popular. This January 2025 edition of the event marked the first special show of the year for the WWE, just one week before the iconic Royal Rumble event. The only real disappointment was that, because it's a show that airs on network television, there were still ad breaks.

The night opened with the Women's World Championship on the line, as Rhea 'Bloody' Ripley defended her title against the physical Nia Jax. The match started off hot, and had a chaotic feel early on. Both ladies decided to throw all their best moves and big spots into this one, and it paid off in entertainment value. The match went a lot shorter than I hoped it would, particularly considering how decent it was, but, regardless, I enjoyed it, and thought the right woman won.

That exciting, if brief, opener, was followed by the Intercontinental Championship match, putting champion Bron Breakker against long-time rival and legend of WWE; Sheamus. Whilst I was undeniably excited for this match, I had very little doubt about who would win it. As expected, it was a physical affair between two very physical workers, and both the live audience and I were loving it. I really enjoyed the match's finish - it felt like an impactful and appropriately hard-hitting ending.

To cut the matchcard neatly in two, the third segment of the night saw a contract signing for the WWE Undisputed Championship ladder match at the Royal Rumble, hosted by the legend Shawn Michaels. TV contract signings are almost always chaotic, so I expected nothing less once again. The promo work from all three men involved was excellent. Both Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens are great at being intense and believable, which helped this segment tremendously.

The penultimate match of the night saw two behemoths go head-to-head, as Braun Strowman took on Jacob Fatu in a match that promised absolute carnage. I was looking forward to this match more than any other on the card. Unfortunately, I actually thought that the match underwhelmed a little bit. This was mainly due to how short it was, along with a relatively irritating ending. The post-match segment was at least great, though, and made Fatu look like a monster.

Finally, it was time for the main event; the World Heavyweight Championship match between champion GUNTHER and 'Main Event' Jey Uso. Similarly to some of the other matches on this card, the result was hardly in doubt, but I was still expecting a decent show-closer. The match started strong and kept a steady but determined pace throughout. Jey has improved exponentially since his transition into being a singles competitor, and GUNTHER continues to be a beast. There was a great false finish before the actual finish, which had me believing for a split-second. It was a terrific main event, that much was for sure.

Overall, I thought this was yet another very solid WWE event. My one complaint was that a couple of the matches went a little too short for my liking. That said, I enjoyed pretty much everything I saw, and I found it to be a pretty enjoyable show. With the Royal Rumble event next weekend, this was always gonna feel a little like a B-show, but, for what it's worth, it was a very good B-show.